The Oktoberfest tradition began in 1810 as the wedding of Princess Teresa and Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and has continued ever since for 200 years excluding 2 years due to cholera outbreaks, World Wars I and II and other economic and political crisises, actually making this years festival the 177th Oktoberfest. Interestingly enough, the same exact recipe from the festivals beginning is used as the festivals main traditional beer. Six of the city's top breweries come together for once and brew jointly to supply the beer fest.
The amount of people who come join the massive partying it mind blowing. 7.1 million people from all over the world come to experience the sight of women running around in the traditional "Dirndl" dresses, amusement rides that light up the German sky, native music, horse racing, parades, exhibitions, and traditional food of bratwurst and pretzels. There is about 10 huge beer tents where up to about 7,000 people can gather at once! Now that's a party.
Something that may disappoint some of the beer drinkers this year is no one will be about to enjoy a smoke with their beer. For the first time Bavaria has banned smoking in all of the tents.
In all previous years, smoking has masked the stench of the poorly ventilated beer hall. So what is there to be done about all the stink of stale beer, rotten food scraps, and body odor? There is a interesting cure.
A very intelligent German named Hubert Hackl has composed a weapon to fight the foul odors. He has come up with a concoction which contains micro bacteria to eat away the smell. Hackl has said "This is the most natural way of treating organic waste," about his idea. The potion is basically made up of a "mature compost" mixed with seaweed and molasses and it looks like a brownish liquid with a pleasant, earthly, neutral smell similar to humus. The liquid will be mopped into the wooden floorboards of the beer halls, keeping the facilities stench free.
In my opinion, I think this is great. Prohibiting smoking will prevent health risks of second hand smoke to others. We all know how bad smoking is these days. I also think Hackl's invention of the stentch-eating bacteria can be used in many other situations and facilities to keep things less stinky!
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